By Ladan Salihu
Tahir, the son of a famous Lebanese Kano businessman, Fadlallah Tahir, passed on in Lebanon, his country of origin, on the 29th of April, 2022. His father was a famous textile merchant and a pioneer large-scale furniture manufacturer. He was the biggest dealer of both UNTL and Arewatex, our foremost textile companies in Kaduna. This tribute is dedicated to his son, Tahir Fadlallah, the proprietor-owner of the famous Tahir Guest Palace Hotel, Kano, with more than 600 staff on his payroll.
He was known for his philanthropy. He has constructed classrooms, boreholes and assisted in various medical care endeavours. In his hotel he treated every staff as family. Outside his hotel were shops he allocated to the less privileged for free. Ten shops in all. Oh, I remember a space he gave to an open-air local barber. Lest I forget, he set up Rana Tahir furniture company. Rana is his daughter.
Tahir had eyes for details and never hesitated to openly rebuke any staff who displayed negligence or discourtesy toward guests.
I believe there are hundreds who are still beneficiaries of his generous disposition within and outside the hotel. Indeed, hundreds among the poor and the needy gather in his residence every Friday for alms
The late Tahir was kind, full of jokes and related well with all categories of people.
He was a sport enthusiast who owned Tahir Babes Football Club, Kano.
I met him first in 2007, when I was an NBC officer in Kano. He noticed how I struggled to ‘equalise’ the bills and directed my placement on special discount ‘ad infinitum’. I believe there are hundreds who are still beneficiaries of his generous disposition within and outside the hotel. Indeed, hundreds among the poor and the needy gather in his residence every Friday for alms.
What moved me to write this tribute was his passion for Nigeria, where he displayed an irrevocable patriotism as a proud citizen. “If par chance I answer Allah’s final call anywhere abroad,” he directed his children, “make sure I am buried in my country, Nigeria, and in Kano.” His will was honoured. Tahir Fadlallah’s corpse was flown from Beirut to Kano on the 30th of April and buried according to Islamic rites.
My special condolences to Muhammad, his eldest son, the Fadlallahs, the staff of Tahir Guest Palace and his numerous friends.
I cap this tribute with the words of Alhaji Suleiman, a shop owner outside his hotel who said: “Everyone, everybody, remembered Tahir as a generous, gentle and kind man. No one has uttered a word in the negative about Tahir.”
May Allah forgive his shortcomings and grant him Aljannatul Firdaws, amin.
* Malam Ladan Salihu, a former Director-General of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), is a politician based in Bauchi
